By Claire Muller (University of Sydney, Australia)

Hey Guys!

As of Wednesday (24^th), it’s officially been a week since I left Australia and ended my study abroad year at USYD (University of Sydney). As sad as I was to leave Sydney, my friends and the wonderful memories I’ve made over the past year behind, I’ll admit that I am quite relieved and excited to be back home. A year can be quite a long time.

However, the thought of this chapter of my life finally coming to an end still saddens me a little. I will miss the friends I’ve made, who helped make my study aboard experience so much more fulfilling & excited as well as helped me become a more confident & life-loving individual. The fact that we are now on either side of the world, instead of on either side of a corridor, did put a damper to my mood a couple days before leaving. However, with the presence of Facebook and Facetime, I could easily have a chat and catch up with them, keeping the friendship going strong. Traveling to Australia from Europe, though expensive, is always a possibility to visit everyone back there. In my opinion, the thought of being able to keep in touch with everyone back in Australia helped with the somewhat sorrow I felt of leaving everyone behind.

There was a quote that I found whilst scrolling through Instagram that really hit home. It’s a quote by Thomas Wilder:

‘It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.’

I really could relate to the quote, particularly whenever I looked back on the adventures I had followed over the past year. As much as I will miss the people I’ve met there, the story must go on and my time in Australia is temporarily over for now.

Even though this chapter in my life has finally come to an end, I can rest assured that I have ended the chapter with no regrets. Before coming to Australia, I told myself that I wanted to leave with no regrets about my year abroad experience. I told myself that I would try to get out of my comfort zone, in any manner that I could; which I did through multiple ways (e.g. skydiving, bungy-jumping, getting a tattoo, driving on the wrong side of the road). I can honestly say that I have left Australia as a completely different person to who I was when I first arrived (in a good way), and I am so proud of myself for the accomplishments that I have been able to complete over the past year. I can only hope that I will look back on my time in Sydney with nothing but a smile.

I will always have fond memories of my time in Australia, because I was able to cross out quite a few bucket-list items (e.g. swimming along the Great Barrier Reef, holding a koala at Australia Zoo, witnessing sunset/sunrise at Uluru, seeing Tasmanian devils in the wild) as well as created many memories (e.g. Witnessing the Sydney New Year’s fireworks with my best friend, driving along the Great Ocean Road, walking through a rainforest surrounded by hundreds of birds, visiting old friends, spending my 21^st birthday in New Zealand, etc.).

I will also have memories that I am not so fond of, some that I wish I could forget (e.g. having a Huntsman spider crawl up my leg whilst watching Harry Potter, queueing for 24hours in sun/rain/storm to see the New Year’s fireworks, walking up the Giant Staircase in Katoomba and finding out that there are actually 900+ steps to reach the top). However, even though I look at these memories negatively, I do not regret them because they made my time in Australia so much more interesting and livelier.

Honestly, as weird as this might sound to the majority of people returning from their time abroad, I am actually looking forward to returning back to Manchester for my final year, especially getting to see everyone again and catching up with their adventure. I actually have quite a bit planned for my final year at Manchester (e.g. society committees, internships, etc.), which probably helped with the blues I was feeling about leaving Sydney behind.

To sum my experience up, I don’t have any regrets and I’m happy about it.

Thank you for keeping up with my adventures! See you back in Manchester!

Claire